


A Taste of Honey

by greyskiesblack, yodepalma



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Attempt at Humor, First Dates, Fluff, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 11:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11012502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyskiesblack/pseuds/greyskiesblack, https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodepalma/pseuds/yodepalma
Summary: Dino lands a coveted interview with Prince Noctis, but ends up with an even better catch.





	A Taste of Honey

**Author's Note:**

> And now yet another story for which I gave up on finding an appropriate title.
> 
> This is...basically set in the canon universe, but I don't know how compliant with the game it will be? Honestly, I don't even know what we're doing here. I went to write like half of a scene and came out with 3700 words and I'm just VERY CONFUSED right now.

The waiting room in the Citadel is beautiful and opulent, but it's seriously lacking in entertainment. Dino sighs as he stares down at his phone even though he ran out of distractions _ages_ ago, and he makes a mental note to complain about the prince's punctuality in his article. He can see the opening line, _'After two hours of waiting for His Royal Highness, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum…_ '

Not that he'd been waiting for quite _that_ long, but what's the point of writing for the gossip rags if he can't exaggerate a little? It's not like anyone will _disbelieve_ what he writes, after all. Knowledge of the prince is thin on the ground. And, really, he's _lucky_ that he was given the task of interviewing Prince Noctis, though he could have done without all the paperwork he had to sign. He's still scowling at the contract saying he can't outright lie about what the prince is like.

Not that he would, of course. Gossip writer or not, Dino has _some_ integrity. More than most of his attention-hungry peers, anyway.

He's distracted from his phone as the door _finally_ opens, and he looks up with a polite smile as the prince's advisor informs him that the prince has shown up. About time.

The advisor disappears quickly enough, to be replaced by the prince himself. Followed by a _gorgeous_ young man around the prince's age, who takes one look at Dino's assessing gaze and flushes bright red.

Well. This story just got _interesting_.

Dino gets to his feet politely as the prince moves into the room with his hand clenched around his friend's arm. The prince holds out a hand to shake and doesn't introduce himself, but he does turn to his friend with a warm smile.

"This is my best friend Prompto," the prince says in his quiet voice. "I asked him to sit with me for the interview. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not, Your Highness," Dino says. Prompto holds out a hesitant hand and Dino lifts it to his lips to brush a soft kiss across his knuckles. Prompto's flush darkens and he chews on his lower lip, looking over at Noctis with uncertain eyes.

"I didn't bring him here so you could hit on him," Prince Noctis says, pulling his friend's hand loose from Dino's lax grip.

"My sincerest apologies, Your Highness," Dino says insincerely. Prince Noctis glares at him while he sits on the loveseat, and Prompto sits down a little closer to him than _friends_ usually do. Dino mentally tacks on an aside to his opening. ' _The prince brings a friend to the interview with him, and their unusual closeness as they sit down arouses a slew of new questions. Unfortunately, the interview questions had to be pre-approved by the Crown…_ '

Dino sits across from them, opening his notebook to his list of questions, but he doesn't look down at it yet. "Are _all_ of your friends this attractive?" He grins and winks at Prompto, who doesn't seem to know how to react at all. He pushes his glasses up his nose and shuffles closer to the prince. "Off the record."

"We're not here to talk about my friends," Prince Noctis snaps, and there's the barest hint of a flush starting up on his cheeks too. Dino suspects the prince has a crush of his own, which is _adorable_. Not that Dino can blame him. "And I don't want his name mentioned in the article."

"Of course, Your Highness," Dino murmurs. He dutifully writes himself a reminder at the top of his page. Hm, the second 'o' in Prompto's name looks a bit like a heart. "I don't suppose we could drop the formalities for the interview?"

"Not on your _life_ ," Prince Noctis snarls.

Prompto nudges his side with an elbow. "Aw, Noct, you don't need to be so mean."

"Yeah, _Noct_." Dino gives his most charming grin. "Don't be mean."

"Cut it out or I'll call Gladio in."

That threat does bring Dino up short, just a little. Everyone knows the name of _Noct's_ Shield, but Dino has only recently discovered that the man is half behemoth. And looks about as angry as one too. Perhaps he shouldn't push his luck this time.

Dino clears his throat and reaches for the red button on his recorder. "Shall we get started then?" He waits for Noctis to nod before he pushes it.

The interview is rote and boring, hardly anything worth writing a gossip column about. Dino can't help it if his attention wanders away from the prince's words, and he finds himself doodling idly in the margins of his book more than once. Most of it's aimless little shapes and some sketches for a bracelet he'd been thinking of making lately, but near the end of the allotted hour he catches himself drawing a rather detailed portrait of Prompto. Whoops.

"Something wrong?" Noctis asks, and Dino realizes he's scowling down at his notebook.

"Just having a bit of trouble reading my own handwriting," Dino assures him smoothly, making sure his notes are tilted away from Noctis' line of vision. "Continue what you were saying, please."

He looks up with a smile prepared, but Noctis is looking into space somewhere above Dino's head. "...I forgot," the prince admits, his voice quiet and rueful.

Dino hides his laughter in an awkward cough that gets him scowled at anyway, but Prompto snickers outright.

"Were you falling asleep while you were talking again?" Prompto's voice is teasing and Noctis clearly doesn't take any offense at the question, rolling his eyes good-naturedly and bumping Prompto's shoulder with his own. Prompto grins and turns to Dino. "Don't tell anyone he does that, it embarrasses him."

"Don't tell him things like that," Noctis grumbles. "Reporters repeat everything you don't want them to."

"Oh, I think I can keep this little tidbit a secret," Dino murmurs, keeping his eyes on Prompto. "Since _you_ were the one to ask me."

Prompto makes a surprised squeaking noise and blushes _again_. It's a shame Dino's unlikely to be given another opportunity to see that.

"Are we done here?" Noctis grinds out. He looks like he's considering lighting Dino on fire. Dino doesn't think the prince can cast magic with only a thought, but he doesn't want to risk it.

"I think I've got enough, thank you," Dino says politely. Noctis stands up immediately, pulling Prompto up with him. Dino quickly turns off his recorder and follows suit. "I _do_ appreciate your time, Your Highness."

"Yeah, whatever." Noctis starts walking away and Prompto sighs and follows him.

"It was nice meeting you," Prompto says.

"No it wasn't." Noctis yanks the door open and brushes past his advisor and bodyguard. The advisor shakes his head and trails along behind them, but Gladiolus steps into the room and blocks Dino's view.

Gladiolus doesn't smile as he walks over to Dino. "I'll take you back to the public areas," he says and looms pointedly behind the couch.

"Let me just get my supplies." Dino carefully tucks his recorder and notebook into his satchel.

"Don't forget your phone," Gladiolus says. Dino looks up at him, confused, and Gladiolus nods down at the loveseat. There's a phone practically falling into the space between the cushions, the faded image of a chocobo on the back of the case. Dino almost points out that it can't be his, but it doesn't look like something the prince would own.

It _could_ be Prompto's. Dino picks it up with a smile, tucking it away in his pocket. "Thank you," he says to Gladiolus. "I definitely wouldn't want to forget this."

Gladiolus grunts and waves his hand to indicate that he wants Dino to go ahead of him. They walk to the elevator in silence, where Gladiolus looms behind Dino like a shadow.

"I was listening to the interview." His tone is threatening, but Dino isn't worried. The security camera is clearly visible in the corner and he could sue for any injuries he sustained in the Crown's care. "Prompto's off limits."

"Oh?" Dino turns to Gladiolus to smirk at him. "Do you have a crush on him too?"

Gladiolus doesn't even have the decency to blush; he scowls and crosses his arms across his huge chest. "No. But if you hurt him you're going to answer to _me_."

"I'll keep that in mind," Dino assures him as the elevator dings for the ground floor. He gets off alone, not bothering to look back, and waits until he's sure it's closed again before he takes out the phone.

Along with the chocobo case it has a little chocobo phone charm, which jingles as he walks. Pushing the power button grants him an image of the main character from the latest Oracle Quest, but no options for putting in a passcode. Definitely not the prince's phone, then.

It only takes a minute for him to find the contacts list, and he adds his own number with a little heart after his name. Then he sends himself a text so he can have Prompto's number too. He briefly considers snooping through the phone—he's positive he could find something incriminating on the prince if he looked—but that's a bit skeezy even for him.

He heads to his favorite cafe, a charming little place a few blocks from the Citadel that has the _best_ cupcakes, and snags himself a table in the corner so he can start making sense of his notes. And maybe rewrite the last page in case his boss asks to see them. He barely manages a half hour of steady work before an unfamiliar ringtone makes him jump.

He pulls Prompto's phone out of his pocket and frowns at it, irritated at being interrupted until he sees that Prompto's receiving a phone call from 'Noct'. Whose name _doesn't_ have a heart after it, just a rather sad-looking fish.

"Good afternoon, Your Highness." Dino keeps his voice soft, not wanting to garner any attention for speaking to the prince.  

"Uh, hi," Noctis says. "Who's this?"

"You don't recognize my voice?" Dino asks, smirking because the prince can't see him. "I'm hurt."

There's a brief silence, then Noctis growls, "Oh, it's _you_."

Prompto's voice is faint, but Dino clearly hears him whine. "It's _who_? Noct, let me talk to them."

"Yes, Your Highness, let me speak to your cute friend," Dino purrs.

"Don't call him cute!" Noctis snaps.

"Wait, they called me cute?"

Dino waits patiently through the ensuing scuffle, cleaning up his sketch of Prompto to give himself something to do. When it ends there's a moment of panting before Prompto speaks.

"Sorry, he's a jerk." Prompto still sounds breathless, and Dino doesn't even try to rein in the dirty thoughts it gives him. "Hi, um, who is this?"

"Hmm, it's Dino."

"The...the guy who just interviewed Noct?" Prompto doesn't sound very certain, but Dino still feels smug that he remembered.  "How did you get my phone?"

"You left it on the couch in your rush out the door." Dino frowns at his notebook and carefully erases a few wayward lines. "I thought I would take it with me rather than let the cleaning staff get a hold of it."

"Oh. Thanks, I guess." Prompto's probably chewing on his lip again. "Sooo can I have it back?"

Dino makes a face at the papers and electronics he has scattered around his seat. "I don't think I can get back to the Citadel right now," he lies. "Could you come meet me at a coffee shop? It's not far, I promise."

"Yeah, I can do that!" Prompto sounds so cheerful it's almost painful. "Text me—I mean Noct, you know—the address and I'll be right there."

Dino can hear the prince complaining somewhere in the background, but he ignores it entirely. "Excellent. It's a date then."

"W-wait." Prompto's voice has gone up an octave. "It's a _what_?"

"I'll see you in a few minutes, Prompto."

Dino hangs up the phone on Prompto's stuttering, smirking at himself for a job well done. He cleans up his mess a little while he waits for Prompto get there, not wanting it to be obvious that he'd already been here for a while, and tries to turn his attention back to his work. It's impossible. He keeps looking at his phone to check the time instead, taps his pencil on the table, and after twenty minutes of failure he flips to a fresh page in his notebook and starts another sketch.

Prompto shows up fifteen minutes later, though Dino almost doesn't recognize him when he glances up at the sound of the door's bell. It looks like he's changed clothes and the glasses he'd had on before are nowhere to be seen. Dino stuffs his notebook back in his satchel, and then unlocks his phone so it looks like he's busy when Prompto catches sight of him. It's another minute before he sees Prompto's legs on the other side of his table.

"Um, Dino?" Prompto says, and Dino looks up as if he hadn't noticed Prompto's approach. The smile he gives is genuine, though.

"Ah, Prompto, it's _lovely_ to see you." Prompto blushes at the emphasis Dino puts on the word 'lovely'. "Why don't you sit down?"

"I just came to get my phone," Prompto says, but he slides into the booth across from Dino anyway. "I mean, you weren't serious about the date thing, r-right?"

Dino leans back in his own booth, casually laying an arm across the back of the seat. Prompto's eyes flick down toward his chest and immediately return to his eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Prompto fiddles with his bracelet, not looking at him. "I'm nothing special and you're, well, you." He glances up with half a grin. "Gladio's little sister reads your column _religiously_. I think she tries to find out how much of it is true."

"I try not to lie about people," Dino says, smirking. "Unless they deserve it, of course."

Prompto laughs, but it sounds a little nervous. "Yeah, of course. Um. So could I have my phone back now?"

Dino takes Prompto's phone back out of his pocket and taps it against his jaw. "On one condition."

Prompto tenses visibly, a familiar look of suspicion on his face. "What's that?"

"You let me buy you a coffee."

Prompto frowns. "What, so you can get information about Noct out of me?"

"The last thing I want from you is another conversation about the prince." Dino lets his smile soften into something more sincere. "I'm much more interested in _you_."

Prompto crosses his arms and does a surprisingly good job of pretending he's not blushing. "Fine," he says, still reluctant. "But the second you start asking me about Noct I'm leaving."

"I think I can handle that condition." Dino doesn't plan to mention Noctis at all, so it shouldn't be difficult.

He hands Prompto his phone and gestures for the waitress to come over. They sit in a slightly awkward silence as Lucy finishes delivering a coffee to someone else.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite little gossip," she says to Dino, stopping next to the table with a hand on her hip. "And who's this gorgeous young thing you've got with you today?"

Prompto blushes, opening and closing his mouth a couple times before he manages to stutter his name. Dino fights back a smile, but Lucy doesn't bother with any restraint.

"Oh, you're _adorable_ ," she says with a wide grin. "What can I get for you, honey?"

"Um." Prompto cranes his neck to look over at the menu behind the counter. "Could I get a caramel macchiato please?"

"Sure thing." She spares a pointed glare for Dino. "You could learn a thing or two about politeness from this one."

"Don't act like you don't love me, Luce." Dino gives her his worst grin and she rolls her eyes before she walks away.

Prompto turns back to him with wide eyes. "Why is everyone saying I'm cute today?"

"Probably because you are." Dino laughs as Prompto moans in despair, then nods toward the phone Prompto is still holding. "You know, you should really put a pin on that. You never know what unsavory types might get a hold of it."

"What, like you?"

"Not like me at all. I only added my number to your contacts. So we can talk again before our second date."

Prompto leans his elbows on the table and buries his face in his hands. "We've barely even started our _first_ date," he mumbles into them.

"So you admit this is our first date then?" Dino probably shouldn't tease him like this, but he can't help himself. Prompto peeks over the top of his fingertips to glare at Dino.

"You're horrible," Prompto whines.

Dino isn't entirely certain what to say after that, so he's relieved to see that Lucy is already returning with Prompto's order...and a piece of pie. She sets both things on the table in front of Prompto.

"Oh, I didn't ask for pie?" Prompto looks between the pie and Lucy with a furrowed brow.

"It's on the house, honey," Lucy explains. "Cherry, of course. Our specialty!"

Dino raises both of his eyebrows; he's never heard anything about a specialty in this place, and he comes here a lot. One glance from Lucy convinces him not to voice his incredulity. Instead he leans on the table and pouts. "I've never gotten free pie."

"You're not cute enough to deserve it, sweetie," Lucy tells him, patting him on the cheek. "Do you two need anything else?"

"I think this will do for now," Dino says. "Thanks for the pie."

Lucy gives him a parting smile and walks off to help another table. Prompto pokes at his pie like he's afraid it's going to explode. Dino shakes his head and pulls his notebook back out of his satchel.

"Oh man, not those questions again," Prompto whines, wrinkling his nose at the book. "Those were boring."

"Yes, they were," Dino agrees. "But I just wanted to show you this."

He flips the notebook open to the page with the still-unfinished sketch of Prompto and puts it on the table between them. Prompto reaches out to take it, but stops halfway as his cheeks heat up.

"Is that _me_?" Prompto asks. "Wow, that's really good. Are you giving it to me or…"

"You can have it if you want it," Dino says, taking the notebook back so he can tear out the page. He signs his name underneath Prompto's face and adds his phone number to it. "In case my number disappears from your phone." He winks.

Prompto bites his lip as he takes the page, looking at it for another long second. "Thanks. I guess."

"Do you have any interesting hobbies?" Dino asks, smiling at the confused look Prompto shoots him. "I'm just trying to get to know you."

Prompto huffs and cuts off a piece of his pie, but doesn't eat it yet. "I like to take pictures, I guess." He pushes the pie around the plate. "And I build stuff. Robots and things."

"Robots?" Dino asks, leaning forward with interest.

"It's really boring," Prompto says. "You don't really want to hear about it."

"What? I'd love to hear about it. That sounds amazing."

Prompto still doesn't look like he believes Dino, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "Well, if you really want to." He turns on his phone and frowns down at it for a second. "But I have to call Noct in like a half hour or he's going to send Gladio to murder you."

"Then we'd better make good use of the time, hadn't we?" Dino winks and picks up his own fork to steal the bit of pie that Prompto _still_ hasn't eaten.

"Hey!" Prompto pulls the plate closer toward him. "That's my pie."

"Well, you weren't eating it."

Prompto points his fork at Dino. "I'll eat it when I'm ready. Keep your hands off it."

Dino laughs and puts his fork back down on the table, giving Prompto his most innocent look. "Tell me about your robots."

Prompto huffs and cuts off another piece of pie, glaring at Dino as he once again fails to eat it. He starts talking a bit hesitantly, but after a few minutes of Dino's undivided attention he relaxes. Dino's amazed by how _much_ he talks and thinks idly about recording the conversation. Except no voice recorder could capture Prompto's eye-catching hand gestures or the way he lights up when he talks about his latest project.

It's probably a good thing when Noctis calls Prompto to insist he leave, because Dino thinks he could listen to Prompto talk all day. He doesn't want the date to end, but once Prompto hangs up his phone he gives Dino an apologetic smile.

"Well, um, bye, I guess?" Prompto rubs the back of his neck. "This was, you know, pretty fun."

"It was." Dino smiles at him, absently fingering the rim of his coffee cup. "I hope you'll call me soon."

"W-wait, you're not going to call _me_?" Prompto squeaks. Dino lets his smile widen but doesn't answer. He grabs Prompto's fork and picks up a piece of the pie that Prompto _still_ hasn't eaten any of.

"You really should have some pie before you go," he says, moving it closer to Prompto's mouth teasingly. "It's delicious."

Prompto blushes again and tugs the fork out of Dino's hand. Dino lets him; the first date probably isn't the right time to insist on feeding him.

"Oh, this is good," Prompto says, eating another piece before he gets up. "But I _really_ have to leave. I wasn't joking about Noct sending Gladio down here to kill you."

"Have a good night," Dino says. "Dream of me."

Prompto groans like Dino had made a bad joke, but he still hesitates for a moment before walking away with a wave. He pauses again before walking out the door, looking back toward him. Dino winks and laughs when Prompto ducks his head and scurries outside.

Dino looks back down at the table with a heartfelt sigh, thinking vaguely that he should get back to work on his article before his mind wanders too far. At least he has free pie to console him.

**Author's Note:**

> greyskieblack SWEARS she's going to write the next scene(s) from Prompto's POV, so any complaints about wanting more should be directed to her. >.>


End file.
